Re: booting the Gdium

On 22:05 17 Oct 11, Manuel Bouyer wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 09:24:36PM +0200, ??? wrote:
> > > No (in fact, if it doesn't find its root device, it's probably because
> > > it can't get anything from the pmon variables. It does find its root
> > > device on the fuulong). But you can build a kernel where the root device is
> > > hardcoded: in the config file, change:
> > > config          netbsd  root on ? type ?
> > > to match your root device, e.g.
> > > config          netbsd  root on sd0 type ?
> > >
> > > That is neat! So, in fact NetBSD scans available media for BSD-style
> > partitions upon boot? That is sweet!
> 
> Yes it does, but it doesn't use this to select automatically a boot device,
> only to (eventually) find a boot partition once the boot device is
> known.
> 
> > 
> > It is however trivial to configure new variables in PMON, so if you could
> > quote some that Fuloong uses, that could also prove useful.
> 
> The problem is that, from what I understood, gdium's pmon is so brocken
> it's impossible to read pmon variables or command line from the os.
> 
> > 
> > Am I correct in concluding that NetBSD will not find its rootfs when that is
> > placed on an ext2-formatted partition? Since the kernel seems so flexible
> > in locating its rootfs, I am betting that was what I observed this weekend.
> 
> if you use 'type ?' the root filesystem can be on any filesystem type that
> the kernel knwos about. So ext2 should work.
>
Then I change my hypothesis to NetBSD not recognizing its rootfs when it is
installed on a non-BSD partition type. Since I prepared the "boot disk" on a
Linux system, I was unable to create the BSD-style partitions hierarchy which
is native to BSD. My next move is to find a way to create a flash drive which
holds one ext2-formatted, Linux-style partition  to hold the kernel (for PMON)
and besides that the BSD-style partitions which will hold the rootfs. 
> -- 
> Manuel Bouyer <[email protected]>
>      NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
> --